A Woman at War
by Clairriss
Summary: Rewrite in works,Rated T- Her choices were either to become stranded, a gear, or be taken by the breeding farms... so she chose the one choice that could help her find her sister. Gear life was the safest, yet most dangerous. Anything to find her twin
1. Prologue

Disclaimer- I don't own anything but Annette and Zoe. Epic Games owns Gears of War.

**EMERGENCE DAY...**

My sister and I sat in the cold, dark, dank hurricane room underground with our guard dogs, Jackel and Balto, listening to the pandemonium erupting outside. Every ten minutes the ground would shake wildly, and the creaking of the walls in our old, aging house could be heard from underground. All we could do is wait for the silence, the silence that never came. The room that strangely paralleled a cardboard box started closing in on Zoe, and she never stopped trembling. The affectionate licks from both of our dogs, and my desperate pleads to "WAKE UP, ZOE!" didn't even remotely rise her from her traumatized state. There we sat. Listening to the blood-curdling screams and the deep-voiced war cries. Screeches that could only be compared to the howls of the boogeyman, which was supposedly non-existent. 'Till now.

Minutes, hours, and days all seemed to blend together. The time that we had sat in that dark room was seemingly never ending. 'Till the silence came. So quiet, it was disturbing. I tethered Jackel to my hip and Balto to hers, and we slowly walked up the stairs of the cardboard box, and I slid aside the round, heavy metal disc that resembled a drain cover.

Around us was death. Non-stop carnage for miles out could still be seen. Zoe snapped too in an instant, as soon as she saw the battered, bloodied, and beaten bodies of the next door neighbors, she ran for the house, only to be stopped by Balto. Somehow, that dog knew only trouble was to come from going inside that house, and Zoe sensed it too. A boundless minute passed in silence. Both of us knew our parents were dead, and crying wouldn't help. We knew we would mourn, but now was not the time. We had but one choice. Survive.

**TWELVE YEARS LATER- JOINING THE COG...**

_Filling out enlistment papers. Oh joy. Well, it's either this, or some stranded camp. I am NOT putting up with Franklin and his stupid obsession with his Junker. I can't believe we're cousins. "No more favors, Annette!" Yeah, right. He still owes me ten friggin' bucks because the cougars won, and I'm the one who took care of HIM, he owes ME the favor. That idiot… _

Sudden realization washed over her. Fertility, the one thing that would decide what she would be spending the next portion of her life doing. If she didn't tell a lie, she had two options, and those options weren't even up for her choosing. The COG would sit her behind a desk, or send her to a breeding farm. Sitting behind a desk would do nothing but drive her mad, and the breeding farms… _not worth thinking about. _She wrote down her name, age, sex, ethnicity, weapon specialty, possible sicknesses/inabilities...infertility.

Half an hour later she sent in the papers at one of the last post offices standing, thinking about the possible training exercises they put their "rookies" through. She was no rookie, not even close. That was another thing; Franklin had taught her to shoot a weapon.

_It's the ONLY thing he taught me to do... other than keep him in check when that bigmouth of his ran away with him before he ended up owing "favors". Why was he so hung up on that?_ She thought.

She knew she would be sparring, and that would come easy to her. Kick boxing and wrestling are the two things she watched as a kid. From UFC, to WWE, she taught herself every single thing she saw on T.V., and those moves have been called into action more than once, but only kickboxing. She knew how to defend herself quite well without a weapon. These thoughts of preparation swam through her head, and before she allowed herself to brood over 'her first day in gears school', she needed to blow off some steam.

Annette drove from the post office to one of few basketball courts left. No one else knew this place existed; they were too hung up on Thrash ball and worshiped "THE COLE TRAIN!" She herself was a cougars fan, but she was mainly loyal to Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and above all, Michael Jordan. No one knew about these legends except her, and her family, thanks to the recorded reruns of the last basketball championship game, the last summer Olympics, and the last All-Star basketball event. She carried a rulebook with her at all times, like a bible, and basketball was her religion. Every other day she came here with her father and practiced. She wanted to grow up and either earn an athletic or academic scholarship, and play college basketball. Ever since she found Franklin a week after emergence day, she came here and played by herself. Practicing and building her strength, like she was preparing for the biggest basketball event of the in some sort of twisted way, she was. She was preparing to become a gear, one of the biggest life changers. And when she was a gear, she would find her sister. No matter what.

- END

A.N- This is my first writing experience, EVAR, and the two halves of story above will be divided into two chapters and extended. I update by reviews, so like, if I get 2 or 3 reviews with constructive criticism, I will update please, no flamers. I don't think I could handle that on my first story, so please, be gentle: D I don't know where I'm going with this story. I may put light romance in it, who knows. I'm new to all of this, so uh... yeah enjoy. Ill update when I get feedback, which is TOTTALY welcome

-CLAIRRISS


	2. Emergence Day: Living with Franklin

Disclaimer: I own only Annette, and Zoeldana, her sister. Nothing else.

A.N. - This is the extended version of Emergence Day, the first chapter. Enjoy! feedback and constructive criticism is welcome :)

**EMERGENCE DAY…**

Zoe bore her eyes at me, and her mouth opened, as if she was about to say something, but closed right afterwards. No words needed to be spoken; the look she gave me said it all. Emotions shown through her face, full of pain, and disbelief.

"We need to find a safe place to hide, Zoe…"

She said nothing, staring at me with that same look on her face. "Zoe… hey, come on, we need to find a place to stay out of sight. I remember the way to Frank's house… Zoe? ZOE!"

"I want to go see mom and dad."

_They're dead. What am I supposed to say to her? 'They're gone, and that's that. Don't cry about it, either.' If I said that, how would that make me sound? Hypocritical, that's what. I am on the verge of losing it, just like she did in the hurricane room. I just can't show it, to make sure that she didn't feel like we're royally screwed, which we are._

"We can't. They won't be there."

"How the frick do you know?"

"Because I do."

_I was older than herby a third of a minute, but sometimes; it felt a whole lot longer than just twenty seconds. I was the one that she would have to depend on for her survival. She wouldn't be able to on her own; she was too spoiled rotten to use the common sense we both were born with. She was more into Barbie, and I was into Basketball. I had a bunch of guy friends, and I played the saxophone. We were complete opposite, and we didn't even look the same. I stood there waiting for her to protest, but to my surprise, she didn't._

"They're dead… aren't they?"

"If they weren't, they would be out here with us. Just remember that were alive because of them. If they hadn't distracted whatever came up from out of the ground to get us, we'd be dead. They saved us, Zoe. Remember when mom and dad played teacups with you, while I was out playing basketball?"

"…ye… yeah"

"Remember them that way. Just like I will remember dad playing basketball with me, and mom teaching me to use the machete and knife alright?"

_My mother taught me to handle any kind of blade, ranging from knives, to a machete. I also learned to use twin Katana swords that my uncle brought me when he visited on my 10__th__ birthday. They wanted at least one of us to know how to survive, and to defend ourselves, so that I could take care of the other; even though I thought I had that part covered myself. A little bit of watching fighting on TV can go a long way. _

"Okay. What are we gonna do now?"

"We have to find Franklin before it gets dark and the Kryll come out. Jackel and Balto will protect us, okay?"

"Alright."

Zoe and I ran down the streets, staying in the dark, close to the houses that lined them. We stopped every 15 minutes to listen for footsteps, or other tell-tale signs that showed we were being followed. About an hour later, we came across tall buildings. As I weave through them, the area started to get more and more familiar, and we arrived at the gate. The gate keeper immediately recognized us.

"What are you two doing here, and where are your parents! You know they don't want you kids coming here alone. Go back home, Annette. There is no need for you to be running away, I-"

"_One_; they're dead, and _two_; why would I be running away from home? You don't know _me_; don't act like you're my _dad_. Let us in, this is the only place we have left, and Franklin is the only family we have left."

The gate keeper let out a sigh, and pulled a lever, opening the large scrap metal door. We walked under a large bridge, past cars, and Franklin's neighbors. Half of them greeted us, not realizing we were alone in their drunken state, and the others were ogling us heavily in shock, wondering why our parents weren't with us. As soon as we got to a series of houses made of scrap metal, we found Franklin shooting bottles with a Boltok pistol a couple yards away off of what seemed to look like an old school jukebox that was on the right side of the road.

"Hey, Franklin!"

"…what? Hey! What are you guys doing here, where are your Mom and Dad?"

Franklin knew whenever we came to visit him we were never let out of our parent's sight. They didn't trust the stranded around us, but to us, they were distant relatives. We got along with the entire neighborhood. The silent, awkward moment that passed after he asked that question told Franklin that something wasn't right. He already knew something was terribly wrong as soon as he saw us alone.

"Have you heard of those weird earthquakes and the openings in the ground? And those monsters that come out of them?"

"Yes, why…"

"Those monsters tore up my neighborhood. Our parents hid us in the hurricane room, and distracted whatever those monsters were from getting us. They died protecting us."

"…Oh."

'Oh' was all he could manage to say at that revelation.

_Three Months Later…_

"Come on, Annie! I'm sure you can shoot better than THAT…"

"Shut up, Frankie, and don't call me Annie! I will send our dogs on you."

Franklin, being 10 at the time, gave both me and Zoe grief, especially knowing the fact that he could handle a gun better than the both of us. He also hated our guard dogs, which seemed to always be on edge, like they were expecting something. Thinking no more of it, I tried aiming at the empty aluminum soda cans. Pepsi and Coca-Cola, I hated both of them.

"HEY! Don't call me Frankie!"

"You started the nick-name war, and I'm finishing it, _Frankenstein"_

"NO. I am gonna be the one to finish it, just you wait."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that. In your own small, little world, you'll win. But we're not in that world, so you're not winning the war,_ Frankfurter"_

"You know what! Just… just… WHATEVER." And with that, Franklin storms away, leaving dust in his trail.

"Way to go, _Nettie_, you just cost us our chance at learning to shoot."

"_First off_, its me that's learning to shoot for the _both_ of us. The only thing _you_ know how to do is _whine_ all the time. _Secondly_, do_ NOT _start a war with ME, Zoel_danish"_

I heard Franklin laughing in the background, and he walked right back to where he was not but a minuter ago, with a smirk on his face. Zoe gave him a hard glare, only causing Franklin's smirk to broaden.

"That was a good one, Annette! I'm gonna start calling you _Danish_ now, Zoe. Ha-ha!"

This time, Zoe was the one doing the storming as she ran off into the rusting house that we called home.

"Is she gonna be alright?"

"Yeah. She's just… on her period or something."

"On her… period? I don't even think I wanna _know_ what that is. ANY ways, how are you doing with your shooting? You got the Lancer and Hammer burst down, and now your aiming with your Boltok, right? Have you improved, or are you just as suckish as you were half an hour ago? Oh wait, half an hour ago me and Danish were '_throwing you off'._"

As soon as I got finished setting up the aluminum cans, I stepped about 18 yards away from them, and shot all six of them with ease and precision.

"Now, you tell me, have I improved?"

"Touché, Annette. Touché."

**Over the next 13 years, Annette adjusts to Stranded life. Nothing seemed to change, just a cycle of going hunting with her dogs and Zoe, fighting Locust and defending the camp, and then avoiding the Kryll. Between those events in the cycle, she might play some basketball, or practice the skills taught to her by her family. But then, that cycle is broken the day Zoe is taken.**

_One week after Zoe is taken…_

_She's gone, and it's my fault. I was supposed to protect the both of us. Now she's gone, just because I didn't listen to the __dogs. __Of all the beings, the __dogs__ knew something was up. Did I listen? No. I just kept walking down that road, looking for food, when they snatched her. Right from under my nose. What would Mom say? Worse, what would __Dad __say? I've always been driven by food, but I guess the need for it was too great. I just kept trudging through the bush. I didn't hear the obvious footsteps, and I didn't mind the dog's desperate whines. Uncle AND Grandpa (on my mother's side) would have slapped me silly if they found out about my carelessness. Scratch that, they would have sneak attacked me._

Her thoughts continued downward in an endless spiral, until Franklin tried to raise her from her sulking.

"Hey, don't blame yourself for her being snatched. You couldn't have done anything to stop them from taking her, and you can't do anything now except hope and pray. Plus, you're making me depressed just _watching_ you brood and mope. It's an _endless cycle_ with you. You brood, mope, sulk, stare at a wall, sulk some more, eat, take a shit…"

As soon as he said that, I gave him the nasty _shut-the-hell-up _look. He never got the chance to finish his complaints.

"I'm enlisting. I'm moving out of here as soon as I can. I'm serious. I'm tired of being cooped up here, waiting for her to waltz right through that door. You and I both know that sitting on out asses won't help her."

"Getting yourself killed won't help her either. You know you can't trust the COG, hell, they blasted their own to kingdom come with the Hammer of Dawn, and they didn't even give most of us time to grab our shit and run. Do you want to die for a fucked up authority system?"

"No. If I die, it'll be for my sister, and my parents. If you don't want to help me find her, that's fine by me. Just promise me that you'll ask around, you have connections. Use them."

Franklin let out a harsh sigh, and being frustrated, scratched the back of his neck.

"I don't know, Annette. I'm gonna owe a lot of people. I already have one guy sittin' on my back about his _long lost wife,_ and I haven't even heard anything about that. It doesn't look too good for me..._sheeiit_"

"Hey, if it wasn't for me, you already would _owe_ a lot of people, and tell me, who hunts and cooks for you, huh? Plus, you still owe me ten bucks. That's _two_ favors right there."

"A'ight then. But don't call this one a favor, she's family. Just, don't enlist"

"I have to, Frank. It's the only way I could get underground on Locust turf to find her, while at the same time having an entire trained team to back me up. Plus, they put their Gears on 'steroids', so I'll be way healthier. I'm tired of eating food that _always_ has that tiny amount of Kryll shit, then getting an ache in my stomach the size of _Sera_. Ain't you?"

"Hey, I'd rather be eating Kryll shit than be shot at every ten minutes of my _damn life._ I'm 23, and I would like to die when I'm at _least_ forty. "

Stranded didn't have long life expectancy. It was either because of the excessive drinking, or the lack of structure in each camp. It was also probably because of the constant fight for food. They weren't above killing a guy for his share of dinner.

_Maybe that's why all the neighbors carry empty vodka bottles, I always wondered what they hell they were doing with a cracked glass bottle in one hand. Probably to shank the next guy that eyeballed his Kryll-shitty food…_

I decided to prove my point to him about life expectancy.

"Let me ask you something. Who's the oldest stranded you know?"

"They old crazy-ass that runs Aspho Gas Station… isn't he like, 50?"

"You hear what you said? _Crazy-ass_. That's you in 17 years. I already know you're gonna be a crotchety old man by the time you're _40. _You probably already have sat on your own balls like eight times, and I can see _crow's feet_ on your face. Are you hitting your _mid-life crisis?_"

"And are you hitting your damn period?"

I gave him a hard smack to the back of the head, knocking off his hat and almost severing one of his dreadlocks. That shut him up, and the both of us didn't say anything for a half an hour. I decided to break the awkward silence.

"Tell you what, if you don't bitch at me about joining the COG, I'll take away a favor. Please Franklin; I'm depending on you to hold the house down when I'm gone."

"Like I ain't doin' that already."

"Alright then. I'm leaving next week, I-"

"Next WEEK? No. I want a rematch before you go, then. Last Dunk Contest was bull cra-"

"Nope. I'm retiring a winner undefeated, 11-0. How many points did I beat you by last time? Let's see… 15, 16 points? The judges loved me; after all, the Dunk Contest was my favorite part of All-Star Night. _Ha-ha, I'm just playin'. _I'll call in the rematch the next time we meet. I gotta get ready to leave."

"Alright, I'm gonna remember that. The next time I see you, and I will see you."

That rematch never took place in the next ongoing week. I was too busy getting ready to enlist, and he didn't dare remind me. Stress was running high with the increasingly frequent Locust attacks. He kept that rematch in mind.

**:{:+=#=+:}:**

_Ah, hell, here we go. I'm getting real sick of his whining when I ask to borrow his Junker. I have to get to the post office before it closes… it's a crappy Junker anyway, not even the camp's mechanic could fix the thing permanently. But then again, we never had legitimate tools to use. All of it was scrapped. _

"You are NOT driving, okay! The last time you tried, you almost hit the neighbors' gas tanks! That would have blown us all to hell, do you know the explode radius on those things? That would have set off an-"

"Explosive domino effect, I know. Just let me borrow it to go pick up the enlistment papers so I can fill them out and send them in, alright?"

He glared at me, giving me the look of stubbornness and suspicion, but caved in anyways.

"Alright, just try not to drive into a tree, will ya?"

I raised my hand as if to slap him, and he cowered. A smirk made it's way across my face as I walked out of the door, keys in hand.

***Plain text is now the narrator from here on out.***

_A few hours later..._

_Man, I needed this... a nice shower the day before I go._

She stood in the bathroom shower, reveling in the cool water that hit her back. Sure it was cold, but it was a shower; showers always felt good after 2 hours of basketball practice. But, of course, all good things must come to an end; and this shower was no exception. She stepped out of the bathtub onto the chilled concrete floor, picking out her curl-fro with a homemade metal comb. After drying her hair and body with a raggedy old towel, she tied the long, green sash to her head, under the black 2-inch curls that covered her tied the knot on the left side of her head, then grabbed the thin gold chain that hung on the rack next to where the sash used to be, and clasped the ends together around her neck. She quickly dressed, said goodnight to Franklin, and went to bed, wondering about the events to come.

A.N. -Feedback is welcome! (I have a lot of hits, I don't know why people are being shy and aren't reviewing... hmmm...) Seriously, two reviews, and they were only on the **first chapter.** _Help me out here, will ya? _I'm picking up the Gears of War 1 story line next chapter, so i should be able to update sooner, like every three days. i may write a story about the thirteen years Annette spends as a stranded.


	3. Jackpot, right

Disclaimer: I know that you know that I don't own Gears of War. I'm gonna stop putting the disclaimer to save space for the author note. Speaking of…

A.N. - I didn't get any reviews after I posted the second chapter, though my visitors did jump up to 30 and I have 60 hits. You gotta help me out here! I sort of run out of motivation if I don't get some kind of response. I know you guys are out there; it's in the traffic stats… Please?

**:{:+=#=+:}:**

Knocking could be heard on Hoffman's door as he sat behind his desk, examining enlistment papers that belonged to a certain woman named _Annette Richards._

"Come in."

As Annette walked through the door, she eyed the aging man sitting behind a large desk, inspecting what looked like enlistment papers… _her _enlistment papers.

"My name is Ann-"

"Annette Richards. Come, have a seat."

He motioned towards an open seat in front of his desk.

"Your hometown was attacked by Locust, and then you joined a stranded camp, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"This form _also_ says that you already have experience fighting Locust, and are _infertile. _When were you diagnosed as infertile, Ms. Richards?"

_Shit, think fast…_

"I was eleven. My mother had trouble getting pregnant, so they had me checked out to see if I had the same problem. I did, except I had it worse."

_Take the bait… take it, damnit..._

"I see. How long have you been fighting Locust?"

"About ten years. I had to help defend the stranded camp that I lived in from locust attacks."

Just then, another knock on the door could be heard, and he stood from his seat to answer. To his surprise, he found Anya Stroud standing in his doorway.

"Sir, KR Six-Four is carrying delta squad, and is en-route to Embry Square."

Hoffman had to weigh his decisions. Send a woman with 10 years of fighting experience to Mataki for training, or find her armor, and a gun. Everything would fall into place; she could serve as a rookie for Delta, while learning how to move in her armor. Her muscular frame suggested flexibility, so movement would be nothing to worry about. Hoffman thought to himself in silence for a moment, before ending it; with a bang.

"Richards!"

_HOLY SHIT_

"Ye-Yes, Sir?"

"Get suited up. You've hit the jackpot, private. Lieutenant Stroud will assign you a Lancer and COG armor; we have to meet Delta Squad at Embry Square. If you have brought anything else with you, I suggest you _high-tail it _to the barracks; Anya will assign you a cot. **Dismissed.**"

Hoffman ushered Annette and Anya out of the room, closing the door behind them. He himself had to handle more pressing matters before meeting Delta.

_That was… weird... and how am I a private? I thought I was a recruit, this is some weird ass stuff right here. But, it couldn't be the most unusual thing Hoffman has done. Starting with pardoning every single Gear in prison. Except one guy, if rumor is true. What kind of crap is that? I wonder what HE must have done to get on Hoffman's bad side. _

**:{:+=#=+:}:**

A King Raven landed in Embry Square; it's occupants able to see two forms of bodies standing side by side. One with a small head, covered with a gray COG-issued cap, the other with a full head of small curls, a green sash tied around its forehead, and a faint shimmer that showed around this person's neck suggesting a necklace, possibly a gold chain. As the KR landed, a large, pale man wearing a slightly worn gray do-rag jumped out of the side of the helicopter; jogging up to us with a _steely _look on his face.

"You! A traitor like you doesn't deserve to wear the uniform."

"Looks to me like you need all the help you can get."

_Damn… wait, is this the guy that was left at that one prison? Franklin was right, this system is pretty FUBAR…_

"_Step aside."_

A bald man who looked of Asian descent walked past the large soldier with the do-rag, giving him a _scathing _look. A Mexican man about the same build as the do-ragged soldier jumps out of the KR, along with a helmeted soldier who was half the size of all of them. All eyes turned to Annette, and as she noticed this, she seemed to shrink, feeling small under their gazes; even though she was tied for second tallest in the group.

… _the fuck are they staring at? You've never seen a woman in the frontlines before? Oh, I get it. I'm just that pretty…_

"Delta, this is your new rookie."

"Private Annette Richards, reporting for duty, sir!"

Annette saluted the bald man, assuming he was in charge of Delta, because Hoffman had been talking directly to him when acknowledging her presence. Thank _goodness_ she was right.

"At ease, soldier. I am Lieutenant Kim, your new CO."

"Richards, introduce yourself to the rest of Delta while I speak with Lieutenant Kim. _Lieutenant Kim, I've got good news. We have a plan to end this war, once and for all."_

"_Yeah, right."_ The sarcasm in the Mexican's word was biting to the ear, but Annette could only agree.

_Hell, mankind has been in this war ever since I was 12. It's pretty understandable that everyone is skeptical about a sudden 'war-ending plan' that Hoffman might as well have pulled out of his ass._

"HI!"

_JESUS! What is WITH people being loud today! Of all the people to be shouting, you would think that the Tin Can here has learned that sound might echo in that helmet. _

"I'm Private Anthony Carmine!"

The helmeted gear eagerly held out his hand, and Annette hesitated, but shook his hand anyway. This gear was probably more of a rookie than she was.

"Well, uh… hello."

"Don't mind Carmine, he's a rookie too. I'm Private Dominic Santiago, call me Dom."

Annette shook his hand. He had a strong grip, but still gentle at the same time, which for some reason, crept her out. She felt that there was more to this guy, something missing… something…_lost…_

The do-ragged man turned to Annette.

"Marcus Fenix."

He did a quick nod towards her, and she did the same.

"_Sensors are picking up enemy movement, sir. Close by."_

As everyone turned to where the voice came from, Anya stepped out of the King Raven opposite of the one Delta had just arrived in. Annette noticed the reactions of Marcus and Dom; Marcus' mainly. The only comment that she could think of was…

_Oh snap! Looks like Marcus and Anya have history... the way that they looked at each other was a tell tale sign. Also, the smirk that Dom had hidden from Marcus sortta gave it away too. He may not be my pick of top 100, but I can tell that he is in her top 5 pick, sitting on number one…_

The loud snarl of Locust was heard in the background, and not a moment later shots were fired.

_Oh shit, here we go!_

"Locust!"

Anya climbed back into the KR, and the rest of us ran for the sandbags, blind firing at targets; all the while ducking the boom shots and hammer burst bullets that flew past our heads.

_Alright then, I guess it's time to impress. _

Annette reached for the torque bow attached to her back, and peeped out of the sides of the sandbags; looking for the Boomers that were shooting at us. Or were there really even Boomers in the first place?

_How are we getting boom shots fired at us, when there are no overgrown num-nutted locusts shouting 'BOOM'! This isn't making any sense… wait, there he is. I can see, him, I just can't hear him. Clever bastard._

Annette charged the weapon two thirds of the way up before easing her head over the sandbags just enough to fire the arrow at the boomer's head. She watched the head explode into millions of shatters, and grinned from ear to ear; the feeling of triumph igniting the adrenaline rush that surged in her body. She repeated the process again, aiming at the other boomer that had managed to separate itself far enough from its friend to avoid bone shatters.

"YEAH, **QUICKSCOPE**, WITHOUT THE DAMN SCOPE, BITCHES!"

While the rest of Delta squad was engrossed in the firefight, Colonel Hoffman was bringing Lt. Kim up to speed on the Light mass bomb, and how the rest of Alpha Squad has the resonator. Delta and Alpha team would have to meet up and continue together in deploying the bomb. The fire fight ended a couple seconds afterwards. Hoffman pointed towards Kim.

"You, get it done."

"… That… was satisfying."

Annette nudged Carmine's shoulder and whispered something into the side of his helmet. Both of them laughed quietly, but not quiet enough. Marcus turned and gave them both a suspicious scowl, and walked away. Dom approached the both of them, acknowledging the innuendo.

_Wow, ok then. Never doing THAT again… some people don't know how to take a dirty joke._

"I expect you to give me 110 percent, Fenix.

"_I'm not doing this for you."_

_A.N. - Yeah, this is a short one. I have to figure out how much I want to write over a period of time as an update, so sorry this one is short. My updates are going to be twice as long, maybe reaching 5000 words. But, for now, I just need to get the story started. Please please PLEASE review PLEASE! _


	4. Roman Ruins

A.N- Thank you Bunnybuscus and Riddick writer for the positive feedback! To the rest of the readers- I hereby CHALLENGE YOU to review this story o.o (it makes me feel like you guys are stalking me when you don't review), other than that enjoy!

**:{:+=#=+:}:**

Delta slowly made their way towards the sandbags as Hoffman walked towards his KR.

"Enemy reinforcements!"

"Take cover!"

The team began firing, but the KR had already taken out the enemy by the time they could reload to try and restart their postponed firefight. After a moment of crackling coming from the earpiece, a male voice could be heard on the comm. system.

"That one was on the house. Good luck, Delta!"

The faint chopping of the helicopter grew distant, and Delta advanced toward the derelict stone building.

"Get up those stairs! Alpha's waiting!"

As the group walk to the steps of the building, Carmine decides he wants to know more about their new squad mate that was seemingly a great snipe shot, referring to the torque bow incident.

"What made you decide to become a gear?"

"I'm looking for my twin sister. She was snatched about a month ago, by Locust." The rest of the squad tuned in, and Dom took a sudden interest to her revelation of the past. Annette started to get uncomfortable with the abrupt shift of attention.

"My wife is missing, too. Her name is Maria." Dom pointed towards the tattoo on his right triceps.

_Why the hell does that sound so familiar? Doesn't Franklin know a guy with a missing wife?_

Delta jogged up the stairs approaching the passage to the old monumental building and made their way forward, turning right, following the alley out to a court yard with low stone walls.

"Ok, man. Here we go. You still got it?"

"I guess we'll find out, huh?"

"_**UUUMAANNSS"**_

_Shit, again? It's been like… five minutes. Damn you, Franklin. I hate it when he's right…_

Five Drones appeared running around the corner, opening fire. Annette ran around in the left flank to the short stone column that had the crimson omen painted on it, whilst unsheathing her machete; unbeknownst to the unfortunate Drone that cut off her path. As the Drone finally turned to recognize her existence, she sliced open the oblivious Drone's chest, and spun right to rest her back on the stone, waiting for her next victim with her commando knife in hand. Unfortunately, the rest were already taken care of.

"Wow, you really know how to handle that Machete, and it's huge! I didn't know they still made the larger kind." Carmine gaped amazedly at the gargantuan knife as Annette wiped the dripping blood on her left sleeve and re-sheathed it.

"When did you learn to use that, and where did you get the commando knife?" Dom eyed the smaller knife still in her hand.

"My mom taught me to use all kinds of blades. I'm half Pesanga, on my mother's side. My uncle even taught me to handle twin Katana swords. My mom also gave me this knife; she said she found it." Annette watched Dom's facial expression turn to one of disgust.

_Damn, why did I say that? Now he thinks my mom nicked it off of some dead commando... but did she?_

The group continued talking as they turned the corner that the Locust came from, heading up the stairs. They arrived at yet _another_ courtyard, except this one was larger and sat in front of a statuesque stone building surrounded by the columns of another structure that towered over it. The scene had an old abandoned roman look, and the fallen columns that sprinkled the ground captured it more so.

"Grubs!"

"Rook, flank them. But do NOT take unnecessary measures." Kim referred to the Machete incident that everyone was captivated by except himself. Marcus may have been impressed, but remained neutral, unlike Kim, who frowned upon the superfluous heroic.

_You want some fries to go with that shake? _Annette didn't dare say that out loud, Kim was too by-the-book and she knew it. Attempting any comedy around him would get her nowhere.

Annette dashed left toward the massive columns, and headed for the third column that stood right next to the attacking drones. As soon as she was close enough to the enemy, she opened fire at the unsuspecting Locust. She immediately killed two, and downed a third. Annette moved to put an end to the bleeding Drone, and did not notice another that had managed to withdraw itself from her line of sight, but not from her sense of hearing. When she heard the coarse breathing and the heavy footsteps of the Drone, she placed both hands on the machete's handle; and in one fluid motion, twisted her body to face the forthcoming Locust while withdrawing her weapon from its swathe and forced the blade upward, slicing the Drone's face from its jaw to its forehead. The drone stood still, before falling to the earth like a sack of potatoes a moment later. She turned to the downed drone still bleeding and brought down her blade down on the back of its neck, severing the head.

The gunfire ceased after a well-timed grenade was thrown into an emergence hole and detonated before any Locust could manage to climb out in time. Annette reunited with the rest of the team and cleaned off her machete before sliding it back into its sheath that was attached to her right leg.

"Remind me to **never** sneak up on her. I might get a surprise face lift…" Dom said to Marcus, and Marcus couldn't help but shake his head; a small smirk stretching the corner of his mouth.

"Wow! That was cool!" Carmine, of course, had to get overly excited.

"Good job, private. Move out!"

The group walked around the aging building. When they arrived on the other side, a decaying bridge crossing and a dark cloud of smoke could be seen in the distance. They made their way across the bridge; cautious of the planks of wood that patched up the missing pieces of the bridge.

"Control, this is Delta. We have visuals on Alpha. Possible KIA. No sign of resonator."

Annette turned right and saw the mangled bodies of COG soldiers on the street below them.

_Possible KIA? Possible? What the hell, they're DEAD; there is no 'possible' KIA to it. _

"_Roger that, Delta. Keep looking_."

Delta stood at the entrance of another building after managing to cross the old bridge.

"I'll open the door. I've got the code."

A couple seconds after Kim typed in the code, the old door slowly split in half to reveal an old dilapidated ruin, with collapsed pillars scattered across the room. A loud Locust snarl was heard as soon as Delta entered the space, and Annette ran for cover using the first fallen stone brick.

_Wow! I could get used to this…_

As she blind fired at an uncomfortably close Drone, she spotted Marcus running towards an old statue at the back of the room as the ground shook wildly. Carmine was in cover sniping the drones, and Dom was flanking the new emergence hole about to form. Moments afterwards, the statue started to sink, and Marcus lobbed a grenade at the forming e-hole; shutting it before it legitimately opened and let the Drones climb out.

"Nice!" Dom and Annette both said simultaneously. They gave each other a playful glance, and looked away with smirks on their faces.

Delta walked around what was left of the emergence hole, and preceded toward the exit of the room when another one appears, five feet away from Annette.

_CRAP! I NEED A FRAG GRENADE_

She reached for her frag grenades; only to grab air.

_Shit fire. _

"Damn it, I don't have grenades!"

She rolled backwards in time to avoid most of the fragments of Carmine's poorly thrown grenade, and ran into cover next to Marcus; firing at a drone that tried to climb over their cover. Shots stopped after the last drone fell, and Annette stood up and examined herself for any wounds that the adrenaline had numbed. She felt a sharp pain in her left hip, and slowly pulled out a small thorn like object.

…_Carmine's grenade got me…_

"Hey, are you alright?" Carmine asked in a worried tone.

"Yeah of course, it's just a flesh wound. It's like, a couple of millimeters deep; I'll be fine."

Carmine breathed a sigh of relief; but when he saw the heavy stare of Kim, he felt little under his condescendence. He got Kim's message loud and clear; even though nothing was said.

Delta walked out of the door and down the stone steps that led to a long abandoned street. They passed an old broken down van and road barriers that were strewn across the road. What surrounded them was complete destruction; Annette could tell that this road hadn't been used ever since the Locust came.

"I hope that's not Rojas down there. His little boy just turned two last week."

_Wow, he must be in Lifeboat. Lets… let's hope for the best. _Annette found it strange for a man with something to lose to join the COG; if she had kids, she wouldn't dare join for the sake of their lives.

The group continued down the dusty road, passed under a bridge crossing above the road, and arrived at the gory sight of the dead COG soldiers. Another white van had crashed into the wall of cement that was pushed up by a massive emergence hole, and in front of that hole is where the bodies lie torn to shreds, limb from limb.

_This is terrible… my god…_ Annette gawked at the bodies open-mouthed in disgust and disbelief.

Marcus knelt in front of one body, studying it, and then rose from his spot with a grimace on his face.

"COG tags are gone."

Carmine sat on his knees, messing with the helmet of one of the COG soldiers.

"Is that the resonator?"

"Nah."

"Now what?" Marcus questioned.

"Let's get that resonator."

"Marcus!" Dom and Marcus stepped out of earshot as Kim contacted control.

"What do you think?"

"What do I think? Could be Alpha… or it could be the Locust setting a trap."

"Well, there is only one way to know for sure." Annette bud in to the conversation. She could hear their voices, even though they thought they were out of ear shot. She could thank her grandfather for the incredible listening skills. Both Dom and Marcus turned their heads as she continued to speak.

"It's too quiet around here, and if the tags are gone, they took them."

"Our next target is the House of Sovereigns. Straight ahead. Move."

Carmine threw the helmet into the vast emergence hole before standing to continue with Delta on their way to the House of Sovereigns. When she stood up as well, she felt a sharp pain in her hip. There may still have been shrapnel in her, but she would deal with this another time; right now, she had to deal with the locust troika.

"Troika!"

"Richards, right flank!"

Annette dashed for the support pillar that was under the bridge to the left of where Delta stood before the ambush. She roadie ran to the best of her wounded ability, attempting to avoid the bullets of the Locust turret. The instant she managed to elude the line of fire, she rushed to the opening of the support frame that exposed the Locust's left side. She minded the Drone's peripheral vision as she shimmied against the wall of the frame. Once she got close enough she withdrew her commando knife and slowly crept behind the unconscious Locust and slit its throat from ear to ear.

The attack continued as they pressed forward while fighting of the Locust, moving under a series of smaller bridges similar to the one with the troika. When they finished the last Drone, they were met with an old dried up wishing fountain.

"Hey Dom, you got a penny?"

"Ha-ha, even if I did, what would you wish for?"

"Honestly, it may be cheesy, but I wish for something in my life to be normal; a constant. I wish for something that will never change."

"You don't wish for the war to end?" Dom was surprised by her answer.

"Hey, it's your penny. Even if the war was over, we wouldn't adjust at all. Prescott and Hoffman are leaders in war, not peace. We need someone who knows the struggles of the civilians, and the stranded."

"You're preachin' to the choir." Marcus knew she was right, but the time when the war ended was far from now, and peace was even farther away. It's been _fourteen _years, and the COG still hasn't gotten anywhere.

The soil began to shudder and quake powerfully, and the earth that surrounded the fountain gave way to locust Drones. Delta was encircled by emergence holes, and grenades fell like snow. The sound of explosions and gunfire filled the air, and one by one the holes closed as the enemy fell. The smell of death and rotting flesh crammed their nostrils as they breathed; even Carmine could smell the strong, foul odor of war. The adrenaline still flowed in their veins even as the firefight ceased.

"I think were good. Let's grab some ammo."

A.N. - Sorry for the long wait! I had to figure out my schedule of updates. I'm aiming for updates every three days, and if I want 5,000 words, I'd have to write 1,667 words per day. Yeah, I can do that. R&R

A.N. - SHORT HIATUS, BE BACK IN A WEEK. GOTTA DO SOME BOOK REPORT. *face palm* sorry. btw, the new harry potter and transformers was AWESOME.


	5. House of Sovereigns

A.N. - Here's another chapter! If you actually are reading this, thanks. Hopefully I get a little better at this, lol. Also, if you want to see what Annette looks like, visit my Deviant Art page (~Clairriss). My update schedule will have to be every Sunday because of various book reports I have to complete. My updates will reach 4500 to 5000 words if I'm not caught up in work. My lowest will be 3000 (I'm gonna force myself to write, lol). And so, in the famous words of Bud Light, Here We Go.

**:{:+=#=+:}:**

The group of gears began rummaging through the left over carcasses of the Locust, looking for ammunition. Annette made sure she picked up plenty of grenades, just in case another _incident_ happened…

"Follow me!"

Kim led Delta under another series of support frames to an old bridge that was to the right of a neglected wishing fountain.

"What the hell, man. Those holes could pop up anywhere?"

"You'd think we would have figured out some kind of goddamn defense by now."

"Yeah. Command's tried everything, but nothing works. If the Locust want to come up, they come up."

"I used to have nightmares about those things when I was a kid."

_When he was a kid? He must've been as old as me during Emergence Day…maybe even younger._

"_Shit,_ I still do."

Delta came across what looked like the underside of a building with huge clumps of moss growing on the sides of two wide entrances that branched off from each other; a fork in the road, if you will.

"Looks like we need to split up. Fenix, you, Carmine, and Richards go left. Dom and I will go right."

"Yes, sir."

Marcus and Carmine hopped over the short stone barrier that lay in front of the large garage-like entrance with Annette bringing up the rear. They passed old collapsed walls, decaying rooms, and piles of dirt that somehow managed to flood into the building. The dwelling they were in began to shudder as they marched through the old deteriorated walkway, turning left into a room with a collapsed support post, a small door that led to a stairway, and a sweet surprise; a handful of Locust Drones.

This half of Delta took cover at the door frame firing at the Drones. As soon as Annette took cover, her side started to sting like she was being jabbed… with a knife.

_Damn it, this hurts…shit, I don't have time for this!_

Annette let out a frustrated sigh and threw a grenade in front of the three advancing Drones, which landed on the leg of the middle one, taking out all three Drones at once. As soon as that grenade exploded, she marched up the steps in a huff, with her brow furrowed and an agitated grimace on her face; extremely disappointed in herself.

"...what's up with Rich?"

"I have _no_ idea, kid."

They ran up the stairs and were met with a large living room-like space with furniture, a refrigerator, a couple of paintings, two boarded up windows next to the fridge, tainted wallpaper, and a Locust Drone; for a little while.

Once Annette disposed of the one Drone in the room, she eyed the two boarded windows, listening to the _rat-tat-tat _that came from them, and heard Hammer burst and Troika gunfire

_What the heck… where'd the Troika come from?_

She withdrew her machete and forced the blade in between the gaps of the boards, slicing open an oblivious Drone's neck. She reached forward to do the same to the Locust that manned the Troika, but missed and ended up stabbing the Drone in the ear, half way through its skull.

"Gross! Locust _earwax… _damn that smells..."

She drew back her blade, shaking off the still attached head of the Drone, and slowly approached Carmine with her blade still in hand.

"Hey Carmine, merry Christmas"

She quickly wiped the blade on Carmine's shoulder and ran up to Marcus to make sure he wouldn't try to extract revenge. She could tell Carmine was slightly afraid of Marcus.

"Dude, you _suck!_"

"…and you swallow…"

Silence. She knew she had ended the conversation, and continued on walking. Annette smiled when she saw Marcus shake his head and let out a slightly amused huff of breath.

Annette jogged with Marcus and Carmine to the door of the bathroom stalls, and hit the button to open another. It revealed a spacious room with tiled floors. To the left of them was an outsized warehouse-like garage with an old broken down car, a short surveillance building, and even more fallen pillars. Delta reunited, and tried to hold off the attacking Locust still remaining in the vicinity.

"There's another nest around the corner! With a spotter, on the right!"

"Take him out first."

"On it!" Annette shouted

She ran towards the watch tower door and up the steps to the Locust Drone that was spotting for the Troika, pointing out her squad attempting to flank. She quietly snuck up to the Locust before ending its life with her commando knife. After wiping the blood off, she stuck the knife in its rightful place; under the armor that covered her right calf.

Annette peeped out the window while charging her Torque Bow to look at the Drones surrounding and manning the Troika. Once the weapon was two thirds of the way charged, she quickly aimed and released the trigger of the bow, and the arrow went soaring through the air, straight to the Troika's metal sights.

"Damn it, I missed!"

She may have missed the Drone's actual _head_, but the job was still done. The explosion of the arrow sent shrapnel flying, cutting into the Drone manning the Troika's skull, and downing another that was unfortunately close by.

"Whoo! Yes!"

The ground started to shiver, and a rumbling could be heard from afar. Emergence holes were forming in the room that was across from the warehouse-like garage that they were in now.

"We've got Locust coming through! Move! Move! Move! Someone get on that Troika!"

Delta made their way to the platform across from Annette to where the Troika was, and began firing while Annette spotted for the team and used her Torque bow to take out as many as she could. As Marcus manned the Troika and the rest of Delta provided cover fire, she saw a Drone that beat Dom, Carmine, and Kim to the where the troika was and went straight for Marcus, unbeknownst to him.

"Fenix! Behind you!"

He whipped around, revving up his Lancer before his opponent had the chance to melee first, and cut through the Locust's armor and tough flesh; blood splattering across his own. Once he dislodged himself from the corpse, he resumed using the heavy artillery on the enemy.

"At the windows, far left corner!"

He turned the weapon towards the two boarded windows and the door across the garage and pulled the heavy trigger. He released after a few seconds; sure that there were no remaining Locust.

"Good job, men. Now let's go find that resonator. Move out!"

Annette ran down to regroup with the team, and stood at the exit.

"Richards…"

"Yeah, Fenix?"

"…Annette, nice spotting, and call me Marcus."

"Thanks, man."

_Finally! Ice breaker, I thought this guy was gonna give us the silent treatment for a little while longer…_

The two dabbed fists, and her pained expression lightened a bit, only to turn sour again as they all turned their attention to a locust snarl, especially Annette since she was the closest to the door, and was almost hit with it as it flung open to reveal a solitary Locust Drone charging at Annette while revving its chainsaw bayonet.

She thought quickly; pulled out her machete, dodged the Drone's uncoordinated lunge at her and spun around it fast enough to swipe her blade at the back of its neck, severing it halfway. All of the squad was covered in the small droplets of blood spray that came from her blade. A loud thud was heard as the Drone dropped to the floor; hemorrhaging.

"WOW! That was… refreshing, _heh_" Annette attempted to say while wiping the blood off of her face.

"Ahem, show-off *cough*" Dom sputtered, half attempting to conceal his mocking her.

"Man, don't playa hate, you wish you had my _mad skills_"

When they both quietly snicker, Annette's brow lowers and furrows as she feels the sharp pain in her hip again, cutting her laughter short. She couldn't say anything, and she wouldn't; her pride got in her way. Before Dom could ask any questions about her pained expression, Kim conveniently cut in.

"Let's move, Delta."

The squad moved through the short corridor to a partially opened door. Once Kim kicked it down, there was another superior corridor that led around the outside of the building.

"Control, this is Delta Squad. Any word from Alpha?"

"_Negative, Delta. We still have radio silence, over."_

This portion of the building began to shake as dust, dirt, and old paint started to fall from the ceiling and the metal frames let out a protesting groan. Annette looks up at the walls around her and feels a sharp pang of déjà-vu. Dom noticed her distressed look and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, causing her to snap back to reality. She gave him a nod of acknowledgement and gratefulness, and they both continued down the hallway, turning right with the outer walls of the building.

"Roger that. Dom, Richards and Fenix, you'll look for a way in. Carmine and I will stay back and suppress."

"What about Alpha?"

"We'll save 'em if we can."

Annette followed after Marcus with Dom behind her as they turn left at a door to exit the rasping building. Marcus kicked down the door that opened to an old ghost town. They walked past the fence that stood in front of the door and past a broken down van, and a couple of cement road barriers that spotted the street in front of them. Annette walked past the Toll Booth in the middle of the street and found an ammo case with a couple of grenades.

"Hey, I see ammo, you guys need any?"

Marcus and Dom both checked their Lancers and grenades, and shook their heads as a go ahead for Annette to take what she needed, plus more. She picked up the case and took it apart, storing the Lancer and Torque Bow ammunition in every open pocket she could find, and pried apart the metal it was made out of to stuff it in her back pocket; where she subconsciously stored every spare part she could come across. Marcus and Dom watched her in awe as she cannibalized everything she put her hands on.

"What…are you doing?"

"…huh, what? Oh, I'm just uh…"

She was caught red handed, being stranded of all things. She learned to do this every time she found something that could be useful at a later date, like when they came across abandoned turrets and left over guns.

"Just what?" Dom asked with a disappointed face. "You're not stranded anymore; you don't need to do that."

Her face hardened and she raised her right brow with a non-impressed look on her face. She let out a soft sigh and began to explain her actions to Dom, who was as non-impressed as she was.

"Look, it's called being_ resourceful_. I find something, I take it apart, store it, and then keep it with me till I need it. It happens all the time when your-"

"Stranded. When you're stranded, right? Well you're not-"

"Listen, alright? I was going to say _trying to survive._ Stranded aren't as helpless as you think they are. We've held our own for over ten years, without any help from the COG. We live off of what we find, and-"

"What you _find_ never belonged to you in the first place-"

"Well I don't see _you_ walking all over the place taking the armor off every single dead soldier and taking their guns and COG tags back to base to be put in a memorial! NO, you do the exact same thing as I do, but to a different extent-"

"LISTEN, we gotta keep moving to find Alpha, alright? We can do this later, but now is NOT the right time."

Marcus was the one who cooled down the argument, but it was still tense between the two when they started to move across the street to the House of Sovereigns. The tell-tale signs of a massive emergence hole could be felt as this half of Delta Squad refocuses, and runs to the shelter of the immense number of sandbags on the steps in front of the substantially huge mansion.

"Did you see that? GO! GO! GO!" Dom said in a hushed voice as they roadie ran to the middle of the slow inclining steps with road barriers and sandbags.

"_**GROUNDWALKER!**_"

The piercing resonance of a Locust growl hit their ears as Delta squad ran for the entrances of the house, firing at the Locust who kept them from entering, and Marcus slowly made his way towards the far right doorway

"Get in there and flank that nest! We'll cover!"

Marcus disappeared into the building while the rest of Delta fought the emerging locust, and attempted to takeout the ones working the locust turret.

"Marcus, think you can take out the Troika?" Annette shouted, trying to get his attention.

"I'm working on it!"

He made his way through the open hallway taking out each handful of locust that stayed near each entrance, and eventually made it to the Troika. As he was about to man the turret, an emergence hole opened in the main house doorway right behind him, but was quickly dealt with as a grenade went flying past him and into the emergence hole.

"WHOO! THAT WAS AWESOME!" Annette shouted in celebration. That had been her grenade, and quite frankly, she had been surprised at herself for throwing that grenade at such precision.

"Nice!" Dom bellowed. The gunfire ceased, and the dust settled.

"Form up!" Kim interjected, extinguishing the short flare of excitement.

The group walked up to the front of the sandbags where the turret was, and checked in for injuries and such. They all knelt down behind the cement road barriers that were in the middle of the slow inclining steps.

"You good?"

"Yeah, but I got a problem. Something's wrong with this thing. It keeps jamming."

A series of frustrated grunts came from his helmet as he resorts to slapping and punching the gun in random places to see if it would magically start working the more he beat at it. He stood from cover to show Kim what the problem was with his gun, when a loud shot rang out, and blood was splattered across Annette's face.

"Snipers! Get down!"

Annette sat in cover staring at Carmine's body in disbelief, and she felt a sharp pain in her side, and in her gut. Death surrounded her. Again.

A.N.- yeah, sorry about the crappiness of the chapter. read and review.


	6. House of Sovereigns II

A.N. - Sorry for the long wait, I've had a really busy week, and the book reports got in my way, and my computer decided to not work, and just… enough of my excuses and on with the story.

"Rook, get up!"

Marcus called to Annette; who was still kneeling in the same spot she had been since the shot. A limp body lay in front of her. Time slowed and her heart beat quickened; the blood throbbing in her ears. Her right hand snaked up her neck into her hair, as if assuring herself that her head was still there. _She_ could have been the one that died that moment, but it was Carmine that stood in the line of fire, and he paid for it. Her body was numb, but her mind _ached_…

"Come on, _wake_ _up!"_

Dom shoved Annette into cover with him, and eyed the ghostly look on her face, like she had seen the _Devil_. Where the Devil was, death was not far away.

"Hey, look at me. You _have_ to get your head in the game, alright? Deal with this later."

He was basically telling her to brush this traumatizing event off like a mosquito bite, and in a sense, it was. It stings at first, then it stops, and then a half an hour later it swells, itches, and_ burns._ The last time someone close to her _died_ was over _ten years ago_. Even now, she still hasn't recovered from it.

-"_ZOE, wake up! ZOE! SNAP OUT OF IT!"-_

"ANNA! Come back!"

Annette zipped back to reality as her eyes shifted from Carmine's dead body to Dom's face. She could see him reading her face just as she had read Zoe's face the day their parents died. She saw the pain, and could tell that Dom saw hers. Annette started to have more and more flashbacks as the day went on, and it wasn't healthy for her, _or_ the team. _They_ would be the ones to suffer if she didn't snap out of this, and _fast._

Dom gave her a meaningful, concentrated look and Annette nodded her head; mumbling a quick apology.

_I just __slipped__ in front of these guys, GOD I'm such an idiot! I need to forget about this shit! Concentrate, damn it!_

Annette let out a harsh sigh, and clenched her teeth firm as her eyebrows lowered. Disappointed in herself, she swore to put everything except the team out of her mind. Dom could tell that she was punishing herself; the upset look she wore on her face resembled the face his daughter made… when _pouting_. Realizing her facial expression, she turned her attention to one of her pockets and attempted to fish a rather large object out of her pockets.

Everyone was still sitting in cover, looking skyward; probing the buildings for the Locust that beheaded one of their rookies. Annette pulled out bulky, dark tinted goggles that resembled welding safety glasses, but had distinct markings around the frames suggesting that the original glass had been substituted with magnifying glass. If anything, they looked like an expensive pair of shades.

"You see him?" Dom called to Marcus, not yelling anywhere in particular due to the fact that he didn't actually know where Marcus took cover.

"Naw, you?" Marcus's voice sprouted from behind them, inside the house doorway.

"No, but he's not alone. It feels like his friends are on their way, and should pop up any second now. I'll be able to see the sniper once I put on these." She snapped on the large-lensed goggles and examined the rooftop of the building they had just come from ten minutes ago.

"The bullet exited the right side of his head. Check the top of the building we just came from." Kim picked the bullet out of the concrete, and looked once more at Carmine before taking his COG tags and tucking them in his back pocket.

_Read my mind… oh shit, there he is!_

"I see him! And the rest of them are here too, 2 o'clock!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the ground shook riotously and the deafening crack of the earth emanated from behind a white van about 18 yards north-east of their position.

"Lucky guess, Rich. Take out that sniper, were sitting ducks out here! Use Carmine's long shot."

_He just called me RICH. What the hell, Marcus? How do you make a nickname out of my LAST name, and hell NO I'm not using another guy's weapon, let alone a DEAD guy's… I got this._

"That wasn't a guess, and I don't _need___his long shot. I have my Torque."

"WHAT?" Dom shouted as he cover-hopped, keeping his head out of sight from the sniper, but high enough to be able to see what he was shooting at.

"Calm down and watch! Cover me!"

Annette charged her weapon and re-adjusted her goggles to make sure she had the best visual on the sniper. As soon as she looked up to spot the sniper once again before she took aim, a bullet hit the top of her cover, two inches below her face. Concrete shards burst in the air; ones that would have blinded her if she hadn't been wearing her glasses; which now had a long scuff mark across the left lens.

"DJYAHH, THIS FUCKER SCRATCHED MY GOGGLES!"

Infuriated, she took the opportunity to shoot the Locust that dared to scratch her goggles while it took it's sweet time reloading. Annette fired the arrow at an upward angle and watched as it peaked, then soar down as gravity took its course. The arrow plummeted straight to the sniper drone's upper back. She watched as it exploded and shards of armor with a puff of red mist filled the air.

"KARMA, BITCH! _KARMA_!"

Annette snapped off her goggles and switched from her Torque Bow to her Lancer; filling a drone shooting shotgun rounds at her with lead. As she made her way around the left side of the stair centerpiece, another drone had managed to hide itself behind one of the columns. It seized the opportunity to charge at her, and took Annette by surprise.

She saw the locust sprinting at her, and new it was too late for her to withdraw her machete, or lift her weapon in time to kill it. She held her ground, and waited for the right moment to dig her heels in, tilt her shoulder, and bend her back.

Once the locust was apon her with its weapon raised to beat, she stopped it in its tracks by digging her shoulder into the drone's abdomin. Stunned, the drone fell back as it felt the full effects of running into a train.

"Brick wall, bitch."

She tackled the incoheret locust and sat on its chest, firmly keeping it down with her weight. She beat at its skull with all of her might, and when the drone finally gained enough consciousness to fight back, she withdrew and forced her blade between its eyes. The fire fight had been over with, and all that was left was the locust that was still in the grip of Annette's thighs. She rested her head on her hands and the blade's handle; panting in and out, not only from bodily exhaustion, but mental as well. Annette fully convinced herself that as soon as she found her sister, she was AWOL. But her thoughts would not be able to continue for long; Dom wouldn't let them.

"Hey, Anna. Come on, get up. _Move_." He whispered, demanding, but not overly forceful. She sensed a gentle edge of care in his voice, which eased her fretting brain.

To everyones surprise, she didn't protest, and quietly obeyed. She kicked off the locust skull and slid the deadly weapon back in it its swathe, not bothering to wipe the blood off. Annette walked silently behind Dom, into the old decaying mansion.

"Control, this is Delta. Come in."

...static…

"Control."

More static answered Kim. The fuzz and crackle of the comm. units meant that someone or thing had managed to block the signal, or the military equipment had decided to roll over and die.

"Nice."

"Military equipment... _always_ works."

_Fucking great, first day on the job and we've lost our eagle eye. Karma is out to GET ME today..._

"Damn. Someone must have taken out the signal..."

Everyone turned to stare at her, expecting her to know _just_ who had taken them out. Stereotypes always worked like that. She noticed the heavy ogling that she was receiving from the gears, and rolled her eyes.

"What? Could be a some_thing_ too, ya know. Plus, with all the crimson omens around, we already know not to fuck around here with this war going on."

"…_we_?"

Dom already knew the 'we' she was talking about. It bothered him that she spoke as if she was still stranded. Annette understood this, and didn't take it offensively… this time. She smiled and began to correct herself.

"Fine, _stranded_ mark every place that has been attacked by locust, or wherever locust have been spotted. That way we know where and where not to go when hunting, or uh... scavenging."

Annette explained the stranded territory markings as Delta turned left at the entrance, arriving at a master door that would lead through the house.

"I'll open the door, I've got the code."

"Thank_ goodness,_ I think I _forgot_ mine…"

Marcus elbowed her in the shoulder and gave her the _quit-the-shit_ look. She got the message, but chose not to accept it.

"OUCH! ...what?"

Both Dom and Marcus gaze at her this time, which of course shut her up. The door led to a stair case the traveled upwards to the right of them, and as they entered, they heard a loud bellowing voice…

"_Yeah! Whoo! Bring it on, baby! Can't stop this!"_

"Are y'all hearing what I'm hearing?" Annette looked to Kim, Dom, and Marcus to explain the hollering coming from somewhere in the house. They jogged up the stairs, and the voice became recognizable to Annette. Gunfire was heard as well, but that _voice…_

"I think we just found Alpha."

"_Oh yeah, I got enough for all y'all"_

"_Somebody's_ having a good time up there…"

"_You wish, baby!"_

Delta reached the top of the staircase and walked past old pictures on walls with tattered and pealing wallpaper.

_This place reminds me of a hotel… I bet this place was amazing in its prime. The lounge wouldn't be fused with the second floor, there would be nice marble floors, the wallpaper would still be light brown…the pictures would still be…wait, the pictures haven't changed…at all.._

To the immediate left of the top of the staircase was a hallway; at the end of that hallway was a small bullet pack.

"Hey, ammo anyone?"

The rest of Delta shook their heads, leaving Annette to wonder how on _sera_ they managed to make ammunition last so long. She ran down the walkway and stopped to grab the entire pack and shove it in one of the countless pockets she had in the back of her belt.

Once she rejoined them, Delta came to the end of the floorboards that still remained on the second floor. The rest had collapsed, and standing on what was _supposed _to be the first floor ceiling was a solitary soldier fighting off an abundant onslaught of drones

"_You missed. You need glasses, sucka."_

"Holy _shit!_ It's one guy!"

_This guy is insane! _

Delta aimed downward to attempt at helping the warrior of a gear, but he was downed by a grenade that exploded near one of the support columns that _still_ held the portion of floor that they were standing on, nearly taking it out; which would have propelled them down to the level below them.

"We need to get down there _fast._ You got the code to this door?"

Kim moved toward the door and typed in the same code as he did with the last door, but it didn't budge. He typed it again, and still the door did not open.

"The code isn't the same. We have to-"

"EVERYBODY GRAB HOLD OF SOMETHING!"

Annette tossed a grenade at the last column holding up their position, and ran towards the group; sweeping everyone together in a tight huddle. She grabbed Dom's arm first, then Marcus's, and tackled Kim to the ground.

The ground gave out from below them, but the floorboards that they clung to stayed intact. They plummeted downwards and hit the ground with an enormous _thud._ Annette was the first to spring up to help the fallen gear, while the others wearily attempted to stand.

"What…the fuck…" Dom managed to choke out in between coughs.

"You're fuckin' _crazy… Jesus"_

"Private, that was an _unnecessary _risk, and you risked the lives of the team-"

"How _else_ were we supposed to help him? Do you think we would have survived_ jumping_ feet first? That would have fucked _all_ of us up, _**sir.**_"

The mood darkened quickly. The stare down between Kim and Annette was more intense than any firefight could ever be, and was taken to the _next level_ when Annette folded her arms and shifted her weight onto her right leg; leaving the other three gears feeling a little _more_ than awkward…

As if on cue, a high pitched screech stemmed from the slightly cracked glass window that resided in a wall near them, and abruptly burst open to reveal three wretches charging at the closest human target; which happened to be Annette.

She tore her Lancer from her back and pulled the trigger, firing from the hip at the wretches that were rapidly closing in on her. The team managed to kill two of the tough-hided wretches that attacked, but the third was the quickest, and managed to jump at Annette's chest before meeting the blade of her Machete, and stopping in its tracks.

"Shit, we got wretches here! Damn it, Karma!"

She hoisted the dead wretch to her chest level and clutched its neck with her left hand while withdrawing the blade from the dead body with the other; letting the carcass fall to the ground. Annette walked up to the group while wiping the rotten wretch blood on her gloved right forearm.

"Yeah, that was beautiful, baby!"

"State your name, soldier."

"Private Augustus Cole, Alpha Squad, sir."

_BINGO!_

"Cole Train, number 83! What are you _doing _here, man-?"

"-Where's the rest of your squad?" Kim cut in before an off-task conversation could start up.

_Way to kill the shit out of a conversation that hasn't even started yet…jack ass…_

"They're sitting tight, over in the Tomb."

"We're Delta Squad. We're here to retrieve the sonic device-"

"-and to get you guys out of here."

"Well hell yeah. We been waiting for the chopper, but the radios don't work for shit! ...sir"

"Yep. Seeders, right?"

"Yeah, they're jamming' our transmissions! How did you know?"

"What else could it have been …don't answer that."

"Then we have to make those Seeders our top priority, sir."

"Agreed. We need to reestablish radio contact with control, ASAP."

Dom started up the conversation that had been itching at Annette as soon as she heard Cole's voice bellowing in the back ground, while they walked the stairs back up to the second floor.

"Number 83, Damn!"

"The one and only, baby."

"Defensive Linemen for the _Cougars. _You're great, man! I used to _love_ watching you play!"

"Ooh, baby knows her _sports!"_

Dom was so taken back, he stopped walking all together. "You used to watch _Thrashball?"_He gave her an incredulous look. _Now I've seen it all… Maria wasn't in to sports and I'm pretty sure Anya wasn't either._

Annette knew what was coming; more female stereotypes. The fact that Anya was the only woman that they have seen in _prime_ didn't help either, let alone one that has _boyish_ qualities.

_These guys probably haven't seen a woman fight in a while, other than Mataki of course, but she's __old__._

She explained her sports knowledge to the group while they slowly ambled up the stairs. "You say it like it's surprising. Back at home, we still watch reruns of Thrashball _and_ Basketball. Just sit back, grab a beer, and _chill._ In between hunting and fighting the locust, of course."

"… You drink _beer?" _Marcus thought it rather comical. _Anya doesn't drink beer…_

"Yeah, Marcus, I do. Why, you've never heard of women drinking beer before? Quit comparing me to other _women_ in your life, like Anya."

Marcus clenched his jaw muscles. Annette saw this sign, but chose to continue anyways.

"She's all perfect, and ladylike, and proper. She doesn't like to scrape her knees climbing trees or anything like that. Then there's me. I was so good I had to play for the _boy's_ basketball team. I wasn't afraid of getting my jeans muddy, and I was into worms and bugs and stuff. I was a tomboy, alright? You guys are friggin _stereotypical, I swear."_

Dom had her nailed to a tee. "You played the saxophone, didn't you?" If the answer to that question _wasn't _a yes, he'd be damned.

"Yes I _fuckin' _did. I was first chair, I rocked that shit, and I'm _damned proud of it. _What's more? When Football was still around, I was a _Steelers_ fan." Annette stormed to the top of the stairs to meet with Kim, leaving Dom, Cole, and Marcus in the dust of her heels.

Cole decided that the woman gear of Delta was _alright_. "I like her. She's a thick-headed _Steelers_ fan, but I like her." The three attempted to keep their hysterical laughter a secret, but there was no getting around Annette's highly trained ears.

"I heard that! Yeah, you assholes laugh it up."

Annette met them at the top of the stairs, and walked into a tall room with a couch and a small table. The walls were a dingy gray and the glass windows in the wall to the left let in a dim light; adding to the rustic feel. At the end of the small room was a door that took up two thirds of the right wall. When the group reached the door, the mood tensed up again as everyone watched Kim type in a code.

Annette got more and more impatient as she watched Kim's slow and precise movement of typing in each key _one…by one… by one… by one…_ so much so that she switched her weight from one leg to the other and bobbed her right heel up and down. She swore, if this code was wrong…

_He's just doing this to fuck with me, isn't he?_

Kim slowly turned his head toward Annette, and gave her a mischievous smirk. He pressed a small green button and the door slowly opened. He stood there still giving Annette that same amused look.

"You're funny, _sir. REAL_ funny." Annette gave Kim an extremely annoyed look that could only say…

_Are you serious?_

Marcus chuckled as he passed her by, and friendlily prodded her shoulder. "Come on, let's go."

She turned and kept her eyes narrowly trained on Marcus's head, still not moving from her spot.

"Come on,_ baby! _We gotta get back in the game!" Cole nudged her along with his dinner plate sized hand, which almost knocked her off balance; the man didn't even know his own_ strength._

A.N. – Again, sorry for the wait! Things just got so hectic, ya know? I've been worrying about you guys a LOT. And welcome to our new reader Andoria! Thanks for the review! Thank you too Mana4X2! Also, I twisted Kim's character a little, and I don't like the way I described the house… is something missing? Yes? No? Maybe? I need some feedback so I can make this story better :) thanks for reading!


	7. Approaching Train

A.N. - Ok, last chapter was sort of a _circus._ It will be redone because I have no clue what I was thinking when I wrote it; everyone was just out of character. Actually, gimme some feedback on whether I should rewrite that one or not. Hello to our new reader, Siren to the Wolves! Glad you're here! Also, I have just finished reading Aspho Fields so hopefully my mind will be _set. Here we go…_

Delta slowly ambled through the door. Marcus, the first one to step foot in the hall, was greeted with a crash of glass in the background and a high pitched squeak; _no, snarl. _ He turned his head to the shattered window that stood between the walls and the ceiling. The tense mood and silence told him that everyone heard what he did. He nodded toward Dom, Cole, and Annette. _We're not alone._

Dom eyed two emergence holes at each end of the narrow hall, and estimated the elbow room to be around twenty yards in each direction. Both emergence holes, to the right and left of them, completely closed off any chance of a quick escape. He watched as Kim attempted to open the door and caught a small twitch in his face. The door wouldn't open; it had been _welded_ shut. This meant that they were shut off in each direction. _Ambush waiting to happen. _He watched Kim walk over to each of the emergence holes, and double-took when he thought he saw a puff of smoke snake its way out of the dark abyss. _He's probably feeling the same pressure too. Hell, we all are feeling crummy in this little _jail_ of a hallway._

Annette traced Marcus's line of vision to the broken window and spotted an old air vent that probably hadn't had maintenance in _years._ Yet, the small screen door was opened and swaying as if someone had _climbed in_. Annette heard the faint whisper of the breeze coming from outside and flowing through the vents. It swept through the skinny hallway and traveled towards Annette's position. As it blew against her face, she could sense a faint, familiar smell that _burned_ her nose. She attempted to zero-in on the disturbed air way, but was interrupted by the stern orders addressing someone named _Jack. _  
>"Jack, de-cloak and rip this door." Kim ordered the air.<br>_Who's Jack? Who's he talking too?_  
>"Who are you talking to- WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HECK IS THAT THING!" She jumped in surprise as a small robot materialized in front of her and gracefully floated toward the door to melt the welding that denied them relief from this <em>claustrophobic environment; <em>minding its own business_._ She plucked her machete from its swathe and targeted the tip at the machine's turned back, and looked to Dom for an explanation of this _thing_ _that popped out of friggin' nowhere._ This _Jack_ was alien to her. Not Locust alien, more _outer-space_ alien. She kept her blade trained on the small whirring object as it _beeped a tune_, not paying any attention to the human that threatened its existence, _as if it was going to attack, or something._

Dom chuckled at her reaction to the small, harmless, innocent helper bot, rather than her lack of knowledge about COG technology. "Relax, he won't bite. He's just a robot; helps us keep up with control and occasionally command, and he's a gentleman. As you can see, he's good at opening doors." He gestured to Jack; turning her attention to the _bzzz-_ing noise springing out of the bots heat ray, along with red sparks and the sporadic piece of metal.  
>"Yeah, <em>right. <em>I sure hope so." She slid the machete back into its casing and resumed the ogling she was giving the air vent. As she began to tune out Jack's beeping, she zoned into the sounds of outside that streamed into the house, due to the broken window.

She listened to the rusty squeak the ceiling's hatch door made as it swung back and forth. More wind came through the house, and because of the sheer effort she was giving to concentrate on that corner of the ceiling, anything that tweaked one of her heightened senses hit her like a ton of bricks. What hit her _this_ time was the incredibly foul stench that almost broke the intensity of her full-on attentiveness. It burned her nose more than_ beer _did when you somehow managed to snuff it up. The longer she concentrated, the more fetid the smell grew, and soon she was able to hear what might have been scuffling above their heads in the vent system. Annette could hear the rasping of labored breaths, and the small _nails-on-a-chalkboard_ screech. _Something is dragging its claws all over the place. _By now, Annette's alertness had gone so deep that her _facial_ expression contorted; her brows were deeply furrowed_._

Cole saw her comical look, and almost burst out laughing, if it hadn't been for a little voice in the back of his head saying _Baby knows something's up, she hears something, and you should be hearing it too._ He found himself wondering how on _Sera_ someone could concentrate so hard that their face scrunched up_._ He remembered his mother warning him to never make faces, or they will stick, and he will look like that for the rest of his life. _I guess she didn't get the memo…  
><em> "Friggin' come on, Jack. Hurry this _up…" _Annette grew impatient and Jack responded with a few loud, obnoxious beeps, possibly responding to her with a snap._ You wanna try doing this, human? I'd love to see you saw this door in half!_ She threw a scowl in the robot's direction, and devoted her attention to something new; _the emergence holes, and the ceiling above her head.  
><em>

The men of Delta squad sensed the urgency in her voice, as if she was on the verge of pressing the panic button. They watched her pan her vision around the hallway like she was following something that was crawling on the roof. She turned a full 360 degrees, stopping again to face the open hatch. He eyes squint as she focused them on small claws creeping through the openings that the vent door left, and slammed the hatch door shut. All of Delta squad heard the loud clang, visually turning their attention to the vent that was above the left emergence hole. Another clang was heard when the vent on the ceiling that was above the _right_ emergence hole closed. Her blood ran cold as a realization hit her.

_There are way more than a _few_ packs here…_way_ more. _Annette snapped her fingers, drawing the attention of Delta to her right hand, and made hand motions toward the left ceiling hatch as she unhooked her bow from her back. _I'm blowing the hatch, get ready._ Her senses were still heightened and sensitive. She felt something in the back of her mind wrench at some hidden sign that she could not see or hear, but _feel._ She felt a rumbling above her head, and beneath her feet. So faint, not even the rest of Delta could feel it. But _she did._  
>"You know that feeling you get when you hear a train coming?" She whispered, still keeping a hard stare on the left hatch door. She began to explain what it was like sensing an attack like she did.<p>

"Of course, baby! I _am_ the train!" Cole's booming voice startled her like a bail of water being dumped on her head. She was brought back to the level of awareness that Cole was in, which was half as intense as what she _had _been in before _Cole broke it_.  
>"I'm getting that feeling…<em> right now…" <em>She aimed her Torque Bow at the metal hatch door's hinges to completely dislocate the door, and dump any little creature that happened to be sitting on it out into plain sight. She had no such luck. The only thing that fell to the floor was the hatch door. What came next was a gushing wave of wretches, _spidering all over the ceiling._  
>"Well this just turned to <em>shit…" <em>She declared the obvious while opening fire at the hatch; or rather, what was obvious to _her._ The rest of Delta didn't know the extent of the '_we're fucked'_ statement she gave them_.  
><em> "It's alright, _baby!_ The train will protect ya!" Cole's resounding optimism thundered in the hallway, along with the occasional "_can't touch this!"_ or_ "come get some!"_.  
><em>He doesn't get it. He just<em> doesn't_ get it. We're surrounded.  
><em>Marcus, on the other hand, knew _exactly_ what she was saying. _Hell, she's been right _this_ far. _"We need to close those emergence holes, and watch the second hatch!"  
>"Keep them away from Jack!"<p>

Only a dozen crawled out of the hatch and were professionally dealt with, but the last one dropped to the ground and let out a gut wrenching scream. The windows atop the walls shattered one by one in a domino effect traveling to the squad near the welded door. Sure, Dom, Marcus, Kim, and Cole have heard worse, like the thundering chop of a raven, or shotgun rounds being fired at them in point blank range, but it _still_ didn't mean that they were used to eardrum damage. This sent all of their ears ringing, especially Annette's, which were the most sensitive of the group. One of the many disadvantages of acute hearing; smell also had its setbacks.

"It's calling for the other packs! SHUT IT UP, QUICK!" Delta was still cradling their ears to try and blot out the horrendous sound; of course they didn't hear her. Even Jack seemed to take notice to the sudden _increase in audio intake_, and cloaked most of his body, leaving only the arm with the heat beam in sight.  
>The structure of the hallway acted as an amplifier to the piercing screech, and the sound waves bounced off the walls then met again <em>right<em> at where Delta stood. Cole resorted to using his _own_ vocal chords to drown out the noise. As he bellowed, he finished off the ammo left in the magazine he was still using to silence the freak show. To top it all off, Jack was only_ a third of the way done with the door. How long are these friggin' floating, disappearing acts supposed to take? This is ridiculous!_

The threat ceased for the time being, and Delta used the little amount of time that they had, before the _other packs_ came, to recuperate. Annette was the one doing the most of the recovering; _her ears were the ones that took the most damage._ That fact was noticed when Annette fell to the floor cringing. As her knees hit the ground, her back hunched and her hair shielded her face. She grasped both sides of her head, attempting to brace it and calm the ringing that bounced around in her mind. She had never felt this much pain in her _life._

_Oh god, please don't let them be bleeding…please…  
><em> One other in her family had senses like hers; her sister. Although she wasn't warrior-ized like Annette who was taught by her uncle and grandfather, she still had a survival sense that ran in the blood. The day that she _lost_ the little extra amount of sensitivity in the ears was the day that the stranded outpost they lived in was first attacked. An emergence hole in the street, a poorly thrown grenade and bleeding ears. Zoe was never able to hear like Annette again.  
>"Oh<em>, shit, <em>Anna! Hey, Anna, are you alright? Talk to me, say something!" Concussions from sound were unheard of, but going completely _deaf_ might as well be the same thing, considering that they couldn't be able to help either injury.  
>"<em>Come on, baby<em>, say something!" Dom jogged to kneel at her side while Marcus and Cole stood watch and Kim supervised Jack.

Ringing. Terrible, loud ringing. It was like a flash grenade had gone off in her _head._ She slowly removed her hands from her ears to access the damage. She feared what she might see. As her hands shakily reached her peripheral vision, she examined her hand and her body immediately went lax against Dom's hand supporting the back of her armor. _No blood, no permanent damage. _She winked both of her eyes hard, as if trying to blink away the pain in her cranium. After regaining awareness and the pain subsided, she rotated her head towards Dom and nodded, still furiously batting her eyelids.  
>"Yeah, I'm… I'm fine, just… the E-holes…"<p>

She turned to look straight ahead at the emergence hole on the left side of the door. The same '_approaching train' _feeling she had earlier started to ease its way back into her mind. She could feel the rumbling in her knees, and knew that the other wretches had arrived. She wearily stood up with the help of Dom and readied her Lancer. She gestured towards the emergence holes, and withdrew all four of her grenades from the webbing on her armor. Just as the last grenade snapped off, a tremendous quake of the ground alerted the group. Kim ran to Jack's side, and the rest of Delta prepared to blow the emergence holes. They wouldn't get the chance to properly aim and throw.  
>Wretches came tearing through both emergence holes, a <em>dozen<em> per second. All of Delta opened fire in two directions; right and left. The surprise horde of wretches grew so thick that chain sawing would only waist time, and get you attacked from behind. Plus, Annette just didn't trust herself with using the saw. She preferred the quicker, cleaner machete. Dom was _about_ to run at the _right_ emergence hole to hurry up and blow it before things got messy, but the crowd of wretches became too thick to see through, and the E-hole disappeared altogether.

Marcus noticed Dom's predicament and came to assist in mowing down the targets. Cole ran to Annette's side and helped defend while Kim protected Jack; who was now _two thirds of the way done._Everyone was losing ammo fast. It took about ten bullets to take a wretch down, which was six per magazine, and everyone had around 360 bullets to begin with. But, no one exactly counted how many bullets flew out of the nose of their weapon, so a lot more than _ten bullets_ were spent on a wretch. Annette was the first to run completely out. She still didn't understand the art of _conserving bullets_, and her Torque bow was out as well. It was use the blades on the heavy Torque, go on a pistol whipping spree, or choose finesse over brute force and wield her machete. She chose the latter.

She unsheathed the blade and swung the blade at the nearest wretch, slicing its chest. As her blade rose then fell in follow-through, it came down on another wretch nearby, parting the back of its skull. She sliced around the horde of animals like she was clearing brush in a rainforest to make a path. One by one wretches fell, and the swings of her blade became more broad and wide, annihilating more than one wretch with one blow. _Two birds, one stone._  
>She finally made it close enough to the left emergence hole to figure out <em>where<em> to throw the four grenades. Annette was _still_ slicing away at the as she tried to tie the grenades together. _Multitasking was never my forte. _Once she managed to knot all four grenades, she chucked them at the center of the pile of wretches, and ran for cover. All four of those grenades would seal the hole, _and_ explode everything around it. The other E-hole was not as active as this one, and only needed one grenade to shut; but she didn't want to take the risk of missing any when she took cover. The four grenades landed on top of a wretch still about to emerge from the black hole, and detonated on impact. The ground shook like a carpet bomb had landed, and body parts flew _everywhere._  
>Delta was covered in shit and blood; basically what wretches were made of. Red mist filled the room, and innards rained on Kim's bald head. Jack finished separating the door.<br>"Oh, so _now_ you finish?" Annette stood from her balled up position and placed her hands on her hips, shaking her head at the robot. It in turn responded with more rambunctious beeping. Annette smiled at the bot, but her smile quickly faded as she felt a warm substance ooze out of her hip… her _injured _hip. She removed her right hand and stared at the hot, red liquid that trickled down her arm. Delta noticed her stagger wearily and Cole quickly stepped in her way before she fell to the ground.  
>-<p>

A.N. – OKAY! I wanted to save a little space for a little recap on the story and explain some confusing stuff. sorreh bout the messeh ness.

Annette Richards was born a civilian, and _was_ a civilian for thirteen years. She has a Pesang/islander family on her mother's side and (the GOW universe equivalent for African American) on her father's side (she is one eighth Pesang, three eighths islander, and half African American. Strange, I know. It will all be explained soon.) Annette was pretty much raised like a boy (blame her father), while her sister Zoeldana was more _girly._ Annette was into an old, forgotten sport called Basketball, while Zoe was into getting her nails painted. Annette had lots of guy friends and was trained as a Pesang (hence the Machete skills) by her uncle and grandfather (mom's side). Her mother found and gave her a commando knife, which she kept at Franklin (her cousin on her father's side)'s house. E day hit and her parents hid her and her sister in the hurricane room under the house. Her parents died. Once everything quieted down, they went to Franklin's house. Franklin lives in a _bad_ part of town, and later that town became a stranded outpost. She lived there and learned to use a gun for 12 more years. During these years, Franklin and Annette became powerful and experienced enough to run the outpost (head honcho stuff). On year 12, Zoe gets kidnapped. Annette doesn't know what did it, it could be stranded from another settlement (this settlement was too tight-knit and everyone knew everyone, so no one would pull a stunt like kidnapping) the cog breeders, or the locust. Annette decided to become a gear, which would be the only way to be fully protected while being able to look for her sister. She applied, and moved out of the camp to set out on her own. It took two years for the COG to answer her application (she lied and said she was infertile, which she isn't) and Hoffman took the bait… quick. He gave her a room, armor, a gun, and threw her into the flames without training. (She didn't need it. She had over ten years of experience with locust, what was the point?) and so, here she is, covered in locust crap and bleeding out. I hope this cleared some stuff up?  
><em><br>_


	8. The Hammer

A.N. - Hey there! I'm still trying to get a feel for writing, so sorry if the chapters seem a little _bipolar,_ lol. Here's another _late_ chapter :/ sorry…

"Ah, _shit…_" Annette staggered into Cole's open arms, but quickly cleared herself from his awkward embrace. If it hadn't been for her dark complexion, she would have been an intense beat red. She eyed the now deep, agitated cut that had grown in size. A few minutes ago, she exerted herself when trying to close the emergence hole, and now she paid the price. Annette had been bleeding out, the cut worsening the more she moved. But she wouldn't think that way, even though she _had _almost fainted from blood loss.

"Damn, baby! Why didn't you tell anybody you got a big ass hole in you?" questioned Cole, in genuine concern for his new fellow teammate. He pulled a temporary patch out of his survival kit and began to stop the blood flowing out of her hip, to her dismay. She was still standing with her arms folded, trying not to concentrate on Cole ripping a hole in her non-cog issued jumpsuit while he knelt at her side. She smirked when she noticed Cole having a hard time getting through the home made Reaver-hide protective gear.

"It wasn't as deep as it is now; it _was _just a tiny cut from shrap-_ouch_-shrapnel."

"Mmhmm, sure it was." The three onlookers winced as Cole pulled out a two-inch long piece of metal, and presented it to Annette with a questioning look on his face; one eyebrow raised and a small smile tugging the corners of his mouth. "You mean to tell me you _didn't _feel this thing in your side ten minutes ago?"

"Ten minutes ago, I was kicking a drone's ass. I think a little _thorn in my side _was the least of my worries, Cole." She plucked the metal shard out of Cole's gorilla sized hands and held it in her own. She realized that it was by no means _little_; his huge hands just made it look that way. In her own hands, it was half the size of her middle finger. She stared at it _hard_, and looked back to her bleeding hip, asking herself the same question Cole did.

_This big-ass thing has been cutting me up all day… how the hell? I should've known. If it was strong enough to get past the Reaver-hide, it MUST have caused some damage…damn…_

"You'll be good for a little while, baby. Just a fleshy, but you gon' need stitches_…stitches…stitches…" _The word echoed in her mind as soon as it hit her ears. A little childhood fear of needles nagged and cried in the back of her mind. She wasn't afraid of a pack of wretches that had numbers exceeding the 50 zone, but she was afraid of needles. It was the slow pain of being stitched up that came with it, not a quick scratch or cut that a wretch could give you.

_Fuck. I fucking hate needles. Fuck my life. Fuck it _all.

"_Damn,_ stitches. Today is _not_ my day. Thanks, Cole." He rose from his spot and patted the pad down to make sure it didn't chaff her armor and rip off.

"Anytime, baby! I'll sweet talk Baird into stitchin' you up. Come on, we gotta go save him so he'll still be able to do _anything_… other than bitch, of course." Cole ushered Annette towards the door and the group got a move on once again, but not before Annette threw a scathing glare at the robot. In response, Jack cloaked, ending the expression-fight before it began.

"Now _hold up_, who's Baird?" She questioned. Cole mustn't have heard her, because he just kept on thundering along. She decided that _stealthy_ would never be a word used to describe Cole. She could hear him coming a _mile away._

Delta walked through the entry into an immense, abandoned library. The windows on the wall to the left of them no longer held glass, and the metal frames that still resided in the windows sat in a distorted, bent up position. Medium sized book cases stood in random areas of the room, and the books that inhabited them were slowly falling apart as they aged. One book in particular caught Annette's eye, labeled _War and Peace. _A small path that stood apart the regular elderly cement was made of checkerboard tile, and led to another door in between the four windows.

Annette jogged over and picked up the book and dusted off the cover to reveal the title. She chuckled to herself and called out to the others. "Hey, any of you read this?" She shook the book in front of her, making sure they saw the _irony_ in the title.

"Nope, but I'm pretty sure Marcus has." Dom elbowed his buddy's shoulder, recalling the fact the Marcus actually _had_ read that book. He responded with a non amused grunt and a shake of the head as Annette watched from a distance. That was _not_ the answer she expected. She was about to ask more, but was stopped by her nose, which felt like _fire_. Something smelt bad; _real _bad, like _something-crawled-in-here-to-die_ bad.

"Ah, good _lord ALMIGHTY! _What the HELL is that _smell…" _Annette's right hand retreated to her nose as her eyes watered due to the flame igniting in her nostrils. She almost quit breathing, and wasn't about to do it through her mouth, in fear of _tasting_ it as well. She flailed her left arm wildly attempting to fan away the stench, but to no avail. The others watched, wondering what was bothering her _this_ time. The smell hit them a few seconds later.

"Damn, what _is_ that?" Dom wrinkled his nose in disgust, utterly offended by the wicked stench.

"Seriously. Something smells _wrong_ in here." Marcus walked towards the door and peered out the broken windows, looking for the source of the deadly gas. Kim was pacing towards the weapons lying in front of the widow when it hit him; setting him at a stand-still for a few seconds. He dismissed the disgusting odor as irrelevant and continued with examining the weapons; seemingly non-affected. It affected Annette the most. Sometimes, gifts can be curses.

"It's those Seeders. They're nasty, man. _Nasty."_ Cole explained.

"Get your heads back in the fight, soldiers! Focus!" Kim silenced the bunch. Or rather, _attempted to. _

"Well, it's gonna be _mighty _hard when you don't have a gas mask for _this shit." _Annette managed to bleat out in between the shallow coughs. This ordeal made her _pissed off_ at herself; she wasn't paying attention, which got her a sliced hip. Now, she has to put up with Kim's insensitivity. Formality was not in her repertoire; no more _yes sir, no sir _crap.

"Nothing I can do, soldier."

"Well, you could start by _lightening up._ It's not like we'll _die_ out here if we don't follow protocol and whatever the hell else you're so uptight about._"_ That earned her a sharp jab from the elbow of Dom. He had silently made his way to her side while she argued.

"_Knock it off before you get in _real _trouble."_ He whispered harshly in her ear.

_Who the hell? Who does he think he is, my father? The fuck is this?_

"Yes, _daddy!" _ Annette shoved him away and folded her arms, turning her head in the other direction. That little sarcastic insult stabbed at Dom a _little_ more than it was intended to. He thought of his dead kids, his lost wife, and immediately started blaming himself…again_. She's a grown woman, why am I treating her like a kid, let alone my own?_

Marcus let out a gruff grunt of disapproval. He knew what Dom was going through, and that little comment agitated him as much as it did Dom. Annette heard the snort, and whipped her head around to Marcus's direction. _What, you too? Mind your own damn business. _

"You know, you remind me of someone." Annette decided to humor his attempt at changing the subject.

"And who would that be?" They were off topic again. Marcus wondered if Kim ever lost his temper; he seemed to be letting this small talk slide.

"_Hah, _Baird," Cole busted out laughing, and the rest of Delta, except Kim, stared at him wondering what was so comical. "I can't _wait_ till you meet him." Annette didn't know if that was a good, or a bad thing.

"Don't bust a _gut, now, _why is this so funny? And am I gonna be happy to meet him, or not?" Cole laughed even harder when he heard those two questions. She became less and less eager to meet the person who would be stitching her hip back together. Cole's laughter subsided and answered with a _maybe_ statement.

"You'll see, you'll see." That did sound good to her at all. Not _one bit._ She raised a questioning eyebrow at Cole and began to ask what he meant by 'you'll see'. This question didn't make it out of her mouth in time.

"_Are you two finished? If not, we have all day for this meaningless small talk!" _As soon as that tidbit hit her ears, the words Oh _Hell _No flashed in the attitude of her facial expression. She almost lost her composure in an instant, but Cole interrupted before she could manage to shout a syllable.

"Yes, sir!" He saluted his C.O., and gestured at Annette to do the same. She threw a mock salute and rolled her eyes at Kim who had _lost his damn mind_. At least it was somewhat of a salute…

Kim let out a callous sigh and resumed his by-the-book manner. "You two! Get over here and take these weapons." Kim ordered Marcus and Dom to pick up weapons that sat in front of the windows right of the door. "Don't use them until I give the order."

Cole and Annette braced their backs on the wall, next to the door. Annette stood in the middle of the window seals to the left of the door, while Cole took cover on the left side of the door frame.

After half a minute, the door slowly opened up to a moat that cut a gap of water between one part of the house and the other. Sitting in the corner at the other side of the house was a humongous, rotting creature that spat balls of black mist. The little clumps of mist rose in the air and then plummeted down on top of Delta squad. They dived away just in time to avoid most of the shower of shadowy vapor.

Annette took cover next to the wheel that lowered the bridge. Another vat of poison exploded in mid air as she put a burst of bullets through it. The plume of smoke expelled by the blast traveled to Annette, making her inhale the dark haze. She coughed and hacked, exerting herself trying to drive out the sickness in her lungs.

"Fuck this shit, I'm _allergic! _What the friggin' _heck…"_ In all her life, she's never had allergies. Now that she's out fighting these Locust, she's found an allergy; Seeders of all things. Her eyes puffed red and she began to sneeze uncontrollably, making her aim suffer.

They saw her distress and picked up the pace, for her sinus's sake. "Pull the trigger, and wait for the system to triangulate the area!" Kim directed. Annette didn't know what Kim meant by _triangulating the area_. She thought that they were just normal rifles, but obviously not. She watched Marcus and Dom press the trigger button, and saw the light red target beam that shot from the guns. Kim, Cole, and she covered them while they worked on using _whatever_ kind of weapon it was to shoot the stinking seeder.

A faint beeping emanated from the weapons that Dom and Marcus held. Seconds later, a shaft of light shot down to the Seeder's stand still, setting it aflame. She witnessed the strong, bright ray annihilate the Seeder as it released a get wrenching roar in pain. Images flashed in her mind as she watched the ray; images of fear, fire and _destruction._ Words from a historical radio transmission boomed in her head.

_For those citizens who cannot make it to Jacinto, the Coalition appreciates your sacrifice. Please forgive us. This is the only way._

Roasted Seeder didn't smell any better than live Seeder, but at least it was dead; _no more globs of nasty, skanky gas. _She unlatched the water flask attached to her belt and removed her gloves to scrub her face. It relieved the swelling in her eyes almost immediately, as if she wiped off the sickness completely. She felt fresher, but her mind still pinched at a thought. A nagging thought that would stay with her the rest of the day.

_Shit, those things are portable now? Damn. Handy destruction. We're screwed._

"Wow, _glad that's over._" Cole's boots pounded on the broken concrete towards Annette. She was lost in thought again, staring at the weapon now hanging on Marcus's back. Cole had a habit of breaking concentration, but this time it saved her. "Now we can get you stitched up, baby!" His optimism was refreshingly bright, and brought up her mood enough to respond with a quick smile.

She stood up and slipped on her thin, but tough gloves and poured a little water on them to wash off the smeared blood from her hip. Annette dropped into silence. The last flashback had her shell shocked. Hell, _everything _did that to her today. She was used to the enemy attacking _her._ Defense was always her forte; it came with being stranded, and staying _put._ But now, she's on _offense_.

Kim marched towards the wheel to drop the bridge. As she crossed, a small pack of ammunition caught the corner of her eye. It sat in the clouded water under the bridge, left to rust. She thought about fishing it out, but dismissed the idea as wasted time and energy. She could find ammo elsewhere.

_How did _that_ get there? What sorry ass dropped ammo here? That's just stupid. What a waste, I'm surprised some stranded didn't fish it out a while ago. _

"We should use the Hammer of Dawn _all_ the time!" Dom suggested. They got to the other side of the bridge and ambled past blocks of stone and one of the large entrances to the building.

"It only works outside… and even then, only when the satellites are over head. Basically, you lucked out."

_Lucked out? 'The friggin' heck? I didn't luck out thirteen years ago. YOU assholes may have, but we didn't. All that fire and shit for nothing. It's fuckin'_ sad_._

Annette kept a reign on her attitude before she snorted and shook her head; letting her opinion shine through. She's done it once, and made a helluva impression on Delta. If she did it again, she could be charged with insubordination. On her _first day._

Delta arrived at the large door frame that loomed over their heads. As they entered, they were met with more checkerboard tile and a thick, bolted door.

_So much for crossing the bridge; not even _Jack_ could bust this door. Either he couldn't, or he'd take all friggin' day trying… stupid robots._

Kim saw that there was no future in this path, so he made an effort to contact control. "Control, this is Delta, come in." Kim was answered with a faint crackle and fizz from the comms. "Still no good. There must be more Seeders. Let's go." Annette blamed karma for their misfortune; especially _hers_.

They turned around and began jogging back to the library's entrance. Annette maneuvered her way to Cole's side as they crossed the bridge. She was about to make another attempt at getting an explanation from his previous comparison of her and this _Baird person_, but Kim saw right through it and hurried the group along.

"We gotta move! Alpha's waiting!"

_I fucking know, jackass. You think I'm deaf?_

Kim smacked the green button on the input pad to the left of the door and stood in wait as it slowly opened. The group dashed to the door to left of the one they had gone through before. Straight ahead, through another doorway, they could see a Seeder thrashing around in the middle of the bottom floor's courtyard. The floor that they stood on overlooked the Seeder, giving them the advantage of attacking it from all four sides. Marcus moved to the left side of the balcony that surrounded the square, while Dom moved to the right.

"Aim off of the sides!" Kim shouted. They met across from each other on each balcony and readied the hammer. But before they got the chance to pull the trigger, a locust wave burst through the door on the side of the square to Marcus's left. Wretches toddled their way towards him, dragging the larger of their deformed appendages behind their backs. The few Drones and Grenadiers that entered the hall parted ways with the wretch pack and ran for Dom's side, attempting to sabotage his and Marcus's attempt at annihilating the Seeder.

"Cole, you take Dom. I'll cover Marcus. We gotta cover them while they fire the Hammer! Let's go!" Annette separated from Cole and ran to fend off the attacking wretches with her Machete. Kim stayed at his end of the square to shoot down the Nemacyst that the Seeder spat towards his squad. As Annette reached Marcus before the wretches did, Cole spotted a Grenadier that was about to Blindside Dom as he aimed the hammer.

"Three, two, one, FIRE!"

Dom and Marcus pulled the trigger simultaneously, and watched the solid red beam of flame shoot down from the sky and land on the Seeder. Cole sprinted towards the shotgun-wielding Grenadier while revving his chainsaw attachment, and darted to the left as it volleyed a round at his abdomen. He spun around it using one of his down-pat Thrashball plays, and brought the chain down on the nape of its neck. As that grenadier fell to the ground and began hemorrhaging, Dom rejoined the fight and shot a Boltok round through its head. Cole switched his Rifle to Semi-Automatic and put shells through the _next_ _ugly ass thing that moved._

On the other side, Marcus and Annette fought side by side; one slicing, the other pistol whipping and adding the occasional chain sawing into the mix. As the last drone hit the floor and the last piece of wretch fell from a blade, Annette noticed how much better her hip felt without a two inch nail suck into it. She could move a lot easier, except the skin still stung when you moved the wrong way and it _ripped._

"_Damn, _that was a bit too close…" Cole thought. Dom couldn't agree more.

"Hey, thanks man. Almost got my ass handed to me back there." The both of them tapped fists before they checked the bodies for any signs of life.

"Anytime, baby!" He grunted out while he snapped the neck of a drone. A shot was heard in the background; Marcus had just ended the life of a wretch that was dragging itself into cover.

"Hey Rich, you missed a spot."

"Yeah, what_ever_." She snorted. Annette ambled over to Kim to ask a question that would decide what they would spend the next hour achieving.

"Do the comms work?"  
>-<p>

A.N. – Sorry again that this was late! School is starting, but I'll keep the schedule as best as I can :) Constructive criticism needed and appreciated! Thanks for reading.


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